Vintage Continues to Stun....
 

So I'm getting back to vintage and I'm starting by working on a 1968 Topps set to pick up where my collection now ends (1969).

I know prices for vintage have exploded, but what I'm seeing is still bizarre. Common cards listed at 200-300% of current list NM values, which often are a grade or two (or three) below NM. I've gone through the supply of my usual (and reasonably priced) go-tos - Burbank, Mantlerulz, Batters Box and a few others. What's left seems to be guys who have been sitting on vintage for years now "hearing" vintage is selling like hotcakes and pricing them at outrageous prices, although I have seen a few NM commons going in auctions for 20 or more.

Dear Lord...someone tell me this will pass.

Hope not :)

That's nuts. I believe 1968 topps had some huge finds over the years making even NM Cummins easy to find. Must be the top, mark this!

I am mostly a vintage set builder, so I have been living this. It is my observation that the run up in prices started about three years ago and accelerated during the pandemic. I have been saying for a while that this has all the signs of a bubble, and I expected a drawback this year as the vaccine rolled out and life returned to normal. But that doesn't seem to have happened. I still expect prices to moderate, but I also think we may have seen a permanent shift upwards in the market.

That said, it isn't all bad news. I am still making progress on sets. I mainly get cards from trusted sellers at local shows and Greg Morris Cards on eBay. I set specific rules as to what I will pay for a card, and don't exceed that. I lose more auctions than I win and I often get completely shut out of the set breaks, but I am not working on a schedule. It will generally take me 2-3 years to finish a pre-1973 vintage set. If you're okay with that long of an effort, it is possible.

As for 1968, I have been sitting at 2 cards to go for at least two years. One of which is the Nolan Ryan rookie card. That card will probably never come back down in price, so you may just need to suck it up and take the pain on that one. The other I lack is Lou Brock and I probably could have knocked it off a while ago, but without the Ryan there hasn't been any urgency.

I sold off a my oldest vintage sets (1965-1968) like 8 years ago so I missed the bubble - Oh, what I could've gotten for them today.

Now that I'm back, I just started 1968 perhaps 6 weeks ago and I'm already at just over 400 cards. Some of the stallwarts - Burbank, Batters Box, etc. - were selling EXMT (my favored condition) commons from all but the hi series for $2, or a little under or over. I just grabbed an EXMT Mantle for what now seems like the bargain basement price of $388. I had my eye on this Ryan a couple weeks ago: https://www.ebay.com/itm/19436417702...kAAOSwbd5hQQrd, but something seemed funky about that top border.

I live close to the original store of the Huggins and Scott auction house, and I picked up quite a few there at perhaps half beckett.

What seems a bit odd is that of the half-dozen sources I've exhausted they all seem to be missing the same cards - much of the 6th series and half of the 7th, and no one has any Tigers!

Not sure which commons from 68 you are thinking of, but there are some "commons" from this set that do consistently sell at "non-common" prices....and have for years.

Card #s 487, 501-506, 523, 524, 533, 546, 562 and 566 are just a few that pop into my head (there are more) that command premiums.

Card 505 is a Tigers card and it has commanded a premium for years...
here is a link to sales of this card over the past 3 months or so:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...&LH_Complete=1


With the exception of a few outliers, most copies are selling between $15-25.

Tsk, Tsk...
 

...he said, rubbing his hands together gleefully.:D

I love 50s and 60s cards/sets, and have collected them for a number of years. However, I am hitting the pause button because I can't seem to make a lot of headway. Fortunately, I have most of the significant cards for the sets I am building. However, minor stars and commons feel more pricey than they once were. It's hard to explain, but it just "feels" different right now. I'm not what I consider a high grade collector. Ungraded vgex is fine with me in many cases. For the time being, I am entertaining myself with 70s cards/sets because they are more affordable, and I am having just as much fun with those. I am hoping to be able to get back into 50s and 60s projects again eventually. It's all good though!